Dredging apparatus



No. 528,433. Patented Oct. 30, 1894.

WITNESSES;

UNITED, STATES PATENT OEEIc I FRANK A. HYATT, OF BEAUMONT, TEXAS.

DREDGING APPARATUS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 528,433, dated October30, 1894. Application filed January 5,1894:- Serial No. 495,B12- (Nomodel.)

To all whom it may concern.-

"Beaumont, in the county of Jefferson and State of Texas, have inventeda new and useful Improvement in Dredging Apparatus, of which thefollowing is a specification.

.My invention is an improvement in that class of dredgers' whose chiefparts or elements are a plow, or scoop, and an endless travelingelevator, the latter being arranged in a rigid frame that is supportedat a suitable angle, and the scoop being hinged to the lower end of saidframe so that it works horizontally, or practically so.

My invention embodies certain features of construction, arrangement andcombination of parts, as hereinafter set forth, and as shown inaccompanying drawings, in which- Figure 1 is a central, longitudinalsection of my dredger. Figs. 2 and 3 are cross sections on lines 2-.2and 33, respectively, of Fig. 1. Fig. 4 is a perspective view, showing abucket (enlarged) attached to the endless chains, and in standingposition.

The plow or scoop, A, is hinged to and between the rigid parallel sidesof the oblong, trough-like elevator, B, in which the endless, travelingelevator proper, O, is arranged. The elevator, B, has parallelsideswhich are braced by cross-bars. In practice, it is held adj ustablysuspended between the hulls of two con nected barges, so0ws,or acatainaran,-not shown-by means of chains connected with bars, D, D whichare rigidly attached to the respective ends of the frame, B, as shown.To allow a certain degree of free movement of the upper end of thedredge, to compensate for motion of the barges or other' vessels inrough water, I provide the upper bar D with g a swivel to which thechains (not shown) that suspend the upper end of the dredge areattached, in practice.

The plow,A,has a projecting steel cutting edge, a, which is aligned withits flat base, a, while its upper side or surface, a is inclined to saidbase at an acute angle, and rigidly supported between the parallelvertical wings, or sides, a The rear end of the plow (Fig. 3) isconstructed with a recess a curved inward, corresponding to alongitudinal section of a hollow cylinder. The elevator frame, B,

is pivoted to the plow, A, by means of an axle, D, passing through thesides, a of the latter, and arranged transversely, concentric, or nearlyso, with the concave side of the recess M. A toothed roller or drum E ismounted on this axle D, and a larger toothed drum, E, on the axle O, atthe upper end of the frame B. Endless chains F, run on side lines areconnected bywooden cross bars, G, to which the scoop-shaped buckets, H,are hinged.

These buckets are adapted to assume either the erect or folded positionshown in Fig. 1; that is to say, while the buckets, H, are travelingupward on the upper side of the closed bottom, 5, of the elevator frame,they stand erect, or at a right angle to the said bottom; but, whenmoving downward on the under side of the frame, they lie parallel to thesame. They are thus adapted to carry along mud or sand delivered fromthe scoop, A, upon the bottom, I), of the frame, B, and, afterdelivering it into a barge, scow, or other receptacle, they drop intocontact with the upturned upper ends of guide bars, I, which are rigidlyattached to the under side of the frame, B,

and arranged practically parallel thereto, as 7 shown in Fig. 1.Theirlower ends practically coincide with the concave, a in plow, A, sothat when the buckets slide downward on the said bars, I, they readilyenter the concave and are turned up again, as will be readilyunderstood. Upon emerging from said concave they necessarily assume theerect position, owing to their drag in the water. As the barges,or othervessels to which the dredge is attached, are moved forward (by steam orother power), the plow, A, is also drawn forward and caused to penetratethe mud or sand at the bottom of the body of water, by means of thetractive force applied by the draftchains, J, attached near the frontand lower portion of the plow. The mud or sand thus dislodged by theplow passes backward in a continuous stream up the inclined surface, (1of the plow, and drops into the troughshaped elevator frame, B, up thebottom, I), of which the buckets, H, push it to the point of dischargeabove water, as already stated.

The angle of the plow, or scoop, A, to the elevator, as well as thesurface acted on by the former, may be varied by means of the bars, D",attached to its front portion. Thus the plow may be caused to enter themud or sand more or less deeply, as conditions require.

It will be seen (Fig. 1), that the buckets when returning empty are notin contact (save at the hinge) with the elevator proper by a narrowspace which permits passage of water so that adhering mud may be washedoff.

It will be understood that the elevator proper is caused to travel bythe application of power to the axis or shaft, 0', at the upper end ofthe frame 13.

In order to hold and brace the buckets against lateral or endwisemovement, I attach to the upper side of each cross-bar G, an iron bar g,which has its ends upturned, as shown in Fig. 4, so that they projectalongside and in contact with the ends of the bucket hinged to saidcross-bar. A second crossbar, g, is arranged parallel to the first, G,and serves as a rest and support for a scoop when the same is raised, asshown in Fig. 4.

What I claim isi 1. In a dredge of the character specified, thecombination with a plow and elevator, of means for suspending andadjusting the position of the same Vertically, which consist in part ofa swivel connection at the rear end, as shown and described.

2. In a dredge of the character specified, the combination with a plow,whose rear side is concave, of a frame pivoted to said plow, anendless-chain elevator running on drums mounted in said frame, the lowerdrum being arranged in the concave, as shown, and the buckets of suchelevator being hinged and adapted to fold parallel to the frame, and

FRANK A. HYATT.

\Vitnesses:

WILL J. ROBERTSON, EDWIN M. CURRY.

